TY - JOUR
AU - Albanesi,Stefania
AU - Olivetti,Claudia
TI - Home Production, Market Production and the Gender Wage Gap: Incentives and Expectations
JF - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL - No. 12212
PY - 2006
Y2 - May 2006
DO - 10.3386/w12212
UR - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12212
L1 - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12212.pdf
N1 - Author contact info:
Stefania Albanesi
Department of Economics
Ohio State University
410 Harps Hall
1945 N High Street
Columbus, OH 43210
E-Mail: stefania.albanesi@gmail.com
Claudia Olivetti
Boston College
Department of Economics
Maloney Hall
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
E-Mail: claudia.olivetti@bc.edu
AB - The purpose of this paper is to study the joint determination of gender differentials in labor market outcomes and in the household division of labor. Specifically, we explore the hypothesis that incentive problems in the labor market amplify differences in earnings due to gender differentials in home hours. In turn, earnings differentials reinforce the division of labor within the household, leading to a potentially self-fulfilling feedback mechanism. The workings of the labor market are key in our story. The main assumptions are that the utility cost of work effort is increasing in home hours, and that higher effort should correspond to higher incentive pay. Household decisions are Pareto efficient, leading to a negative correlation between relative home hours and earnings across spouses. We use the Census and the PSID to study these predictions and find that they are supported by the data.
ER -